Kinross Gold Corp said on Wednesday it was "pausing" expansion work at its Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania after a government request for talks to improve the country's economic benefits from the miner's activities.

Given that most of the high-economic diamond deposits in the world have already been put into production, diluted via expansion, or depleted, going forward the economics of diamond mines will inevitably gravitate towards higher-cost, lower-value operations.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) launched on Wednesday a consultation to trial in the first quarter of next year the use of its electronic system to determine closing prices of the three-month nickel contract instead of open outcry.